Friday, October 2, 2009

firebug

When I was young, in my early teens I think, the house at the end of our little private dead end road that lead to the driveways, caught on fire one night while the people who lived there were out. It was a huge two story house and pretty much burned unrestrained. The lots were big, one acre minimum, so the fire department kept it from spreading but couldn’t really do much more than that. It was a four alarm fire and we all stood out in the street for hours watching it burn. The flames looked like they went all the way up to heaven. It was an awesome sight.

Early one morning a couple of weeks ago helicopters were circling our neighborhood. I found out later in the day that a house two long blocks south and two short blocks east of us had burned. This house had been vacant for about a year I think. I used to walk by it a lot when I would walk the dog I shared with my daughter’s family. I had just noticed a few days earlier that a garage with an apartment above it, several more blocks south and east, had burned recently.

Turns out we had a firebug in the area. He set 10 fires in the small neighborhoods collectively known as ‘The Heights’, all places where no one was living. His most recent fire was even further east of us. My son-in-law told us yesterday that the police finally caught him.*

*Or maybe not. My daughter says there was another fire Thursday night about 6 blocks over. Now a total of 12.

12 comments:

There is a word for how I feel about arsonists, but I won't use it here. As a volunteer firefighter, I lost a good friend and fellow firefighter a few years ago in a fire set by an arsonist. Three people died that night, including my friend. The arsonist got caught, and as far as I know he is still in jail for his crime.

In the town that we just moved from, (our son is living in our house which is in escrow), a fire burned right down to the street behind our house last month. There have been six fires in the hills around town just this year alone. To make a long story short, they just arrested a 16 year old boy that is not only responsible for these fires, but they believe fires in the area for at least FOUR years. Can you imagine how young he was when he started? I wonder what kind of parents he has. It's all so tragic. At least no loss of human life. Arsonsists are mystifying to me.

I don't understand it either. I can understand the fascination with fire but where/when/how does that become obsession? I don't get torching people's houses or forests either. I think he would have killed someone eventually and I'm really glad they caught him especially since he was just a few blocks from me!